View From The Right: Loan waiver politics

The recent “farmers’ agitation in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra reveals the worst side of this politicking in the name of farmers”, according to the editorial.

Updated: June 14, 2017 12:01 am

Compiled by Ashutosh Bhardwaj

The editorial in Organiser comments on the ongoing “agrarian crisis”. It notes that the crisis, “looming for a long time”, is a result of the neglect of the farm sector by the Congress and regional parties. The recent “farmers’ agitation in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra reveals the worst side of this politicking in the name of farmers”, according to the editorial. “The core question is whether such politicised agitation and waivers without economic prudence would help the real distressed group of farmers,” it asks.

Pointing out that “the farrago of agitations in both the BJP-ruled states indicate the political intent of fuelling it,” the editorial argues that the present unrest was fueled by “anti-social elements”, some of them “closely associated with the Congress Party”. “Such politically motivated agitation will not help the farmers; on the contrary, it will open up new faultlines in rural society,” it adds.

Saying that a majority of farmers take loans from non-institutional lenders, it remarks that “loan waivers and agitations are not for the sections who are really distressed but for the groups having strong economic and political clout”. “The present government has played a key role in bringing financial inclusion through the Jan Dhan Yojna and schemes like MUDRA,” it says, underlining that “we should not
allow petty political interest to use these faultlines for political gains”.

Makover in IT sector

The cover story in Organiser says that most of the “reports” about the “shrinking” IT sector and layoffs are with an objective “to show the Modi government in a poor light”. “The reality is the global IT sector hasn’t shrunk and the demand even in North America still is on the rise,” it says, adding that the “Indian IT industry accounts for about 67 per cent of the approximately $130-billion IT sourcing business in the world”.

The layoff is not a “crisis”, but “a makeover happening in the Indian software industry” as companies are “being forced to change their business model”.

India’s domestic IT sector is “expected to grow at 8.5 per cent from the $35 billion in 2016 to $37 billion in 2017”. “With the push for Digital India, electronic manufacturing, setting up BPOs in small towns and the North-East and the continued excitement among techies for the start-up sector, the employment and entrepreneurship avenues are on the rise,” it says. “More than 1 lakh direct jobs and 3 lakh indirect jobs have been created in the last couple of years for the mobile manufacturing industry.” It is no time to “panic” but to make “better realignments” in changing times.

The terror debate

The editorial in Panchjanya is on the recent terror attacks in the month of Ramzan. Noting that “if Muslims consider this a holy (month),” the editorial asks why have “Islamic terrorists” killed more than “500 persons”?

Over 130 Imams have issued a joint statement that they would not offer condolence prayers for the terrorists killed during the recent London attack. “It’s a good signal that that the Muslim world displayed this necessary gesture of protest,” it says. The global anger following the London attack confirmed that the situation wouldn’t remain the same. The argument that “there is no fault of Islam” cannot continue now. “Questions are being raised in the Islamic world over terrorism,” it says, noting that not just the Imams of London, major Gulf countries have severed links with Qatar.

“Islamic terrorism has taken a form of a global headache now,” it notes, emphasising that in such a situation, it is wrong to expect action only from Islamic countries. “What would you gain by cornering only Qatar?” it asks, adding that “is it not true that the biggest Wahabi engine of Islamic terrorism is run by ‘Saudi sympathy’?”It criticises the step to isolate Qatar, contending that it might divert the fight against terrorism to conflicts within Islam.